Bibi Aisha (Pashto: بی بی عایشه‎; Bibi is a term of respect meaning "Lady"; born Aisha Mohammadzai,[1] legal name in the United States: Aesha Mohammadzai) is an Afghan woman whose mutilated face appeared on the cover of Time magazine in summer 2010. Her story first appeared in the Daily Beast in December 2009, which prompted doctors to write in offering to help her for free. The Grossman Burn Foundation in California pledged to perform reconstructive surgery and began organizing for her visa in the early spring of 2010. Diane Sawyer of ABC News originally covered her ordeal in March 2010 and revisited her story again in 2014.

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Early in life Aisha suffered losing her mother and was forced into marriage as a teenager. [1] In a practice known as baad, Aisha's father promised her to a Taliban fighter when she was 12 years old as compensation for a killing that a member of her family had committed. She was married at 14 and subjected to abuse. At 18 she fled the abuse but was caught by police, jailed for five months, and returned to her family.[2] Her father returned her to her in-laws. To take revenge on her escape, her father-in-law, husband, and three other family members took Aisha into the mountains, cut off her nose and her ears, and left her to die.[3] Aisha was later rescued by aid workers and the U.S. military. Some sources disputed the role of any members of the Taliban in her mutilation.[4][5]

Aisha was featured on the August 2010 cover of Time magazine and in a corresponding article, "Afghan Women and the Return of the Taliban."[6] The cover image generated enormous controversy.[7] The image and the accompanying cover title, "What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan," fueled debate about the merits of the Afghan War.[8]

In August 2010, surgeons then concluded that she was not emotionally prepared to handle the patient responsibilities in the surgical recovery regimen. She was taken in by the Women for Afghan Women shelter in Queens, New York, but after social difficulties with adjusting to the shelter was subsequently moved to an Afghan-American family's house in Maryland. She currently studies English and mathematics and aspires to be a police officer to help and protect women and children.[11][12]

Starting in 2012 preparations to do a multistage facial reconstruction for Aisha began.[1] In order to reconstruct a new nose for her, her forehead was expanded over the course of several months to provide enough tissue to build a new nose. The structure for her new nose was built using cartilage from her own body and tissue from her left hand was also used for the inner lining. [1] Aisha underwent a total of 12 completed surgeries.[13]

A CNN article in May 2012 by Jessica Ravitz explored the challenges faced by Aisha during her integration into a globalized world. "[S]he's been passed around by well-meaning strangers, showcased like a star and shielded like a fragile child," Ravitz reported.[11] Later in December of that year Ravitz reported that Aisha had transformed personally in many ways from her stay since she arrived in the United States as a refugee.

In 2014 ABC News revisited Aisha and revealed her new nose that has changed her completely in appearance. She has been adopted by educated Afghan-American parents Jamila and Mati who are proud to have her.[14]